Expert: Tom Whiting - 3/11/2009

Question
QUESTION: 1.what are some of the biggest breakthroughs you have made?

2. What do you think the merging with the Andromeda will do?

Thanks for the great answers you are giwing me!

ANSWER: Hi Meg,
You doing a survey?  ;-)  I'm just an advanced amateur so I don't
get involved in research.  My only 15 minute claim to fame was
the discovery in 1991 of the telescopic star asterism, the
"Mini-Coathanger" up in Ursa Minor, the handle of the Little Dipper.
It's a tiny dim replica of the 11 star naked-eye cluster - Brocchi's Cluster (also called Collinder 399) also nicknamed The Coathanger by
astronomers, in Vulpecula, the Fox, in our mid-summer sky.
Mine is just a tiny, telescopic 10th magnitude asterism that looks
very similar to Brocchi's cluster.

2. The near collision (or total merger) of the Milky Way with M-31 (Andromeda Galaxy) in 4 to 6 billion years from now will do little
damage....we see galaxies merging and colliding all the time.
Some stars end up falling into the central massive black hole in
either galaxy, others are thrown out of the galaxy.  The former
would be deadly, but usually that involves stars that are close
into the center to begin with, say within 10000 lightyears.
We've out some 27000 lightyears from the center of the Milky Way.
And even if your system is thrown out of the galaxy, all the planets
will just follow along with the sun....the sun is all we need to
survive.  It's actually immaterial that the sun is a member of a
galaxy. Solo stars can, and do exist, in intergalactic space...they
are rare, but there are some of them.  But being alone with the
sun wouldn't make any difference to the planets and stuff of the
Solar System.

This is all academic anyway, because our sun is scheduled to enter
the Red Giant Phase of life in 2.5 -3 billion years from now,
so that will end Mercury, Venus, and Earth's existence.  We have
that long to get off this small 8000 mile diameter rock, and find
another suitable planet to live on.  Well, that does give us some
time.  So the Earth won't be around to "see" the merger with
M-31 anyway.

On any galaxy merger, no two stars will collide because the distance
between individual stars (average of 5 light years or 29 trillion
miles) is so vast compared to the individual sizes of the stars,
even the red supergiants; odds are...slim and none.
What does collide is the vast dust and gas clouds, heating them up, and setting off a whole new round of new star formation. We see that
happening in other galaxy mergers.  Also in many cases, spiral galaxies become elliptical galaxies after the merger is completed.
The spiral systems tend to lose their spiral arms.  
Hope this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA

FOLLOW UP: Please do rate the answer.
Thanks,
Tom



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks alot, I just have a couple more questions which I forgot to ask.
1. So what attracted you to astronomy?
2. Were you always attracted to astronomy?


Answer
Hi Meg,
So, are you a cop or something?? ;-) Just kidding! (Bad Don
Rickles Joke).

I had a 5th grade teacher in 1951 or thereabouts, who enjoyed
the astronomy subject, and she pointed out several grade school
library books on the subject.  Concurrently, I started watching
on TV "Captain Video and his Video Rangers"....the very first
space-oriented 'soap-opera' (Google it) which came on right
after the Howdy Doody show, the first kids show on TV.

That same summer I believe, my family went on vacation from
Pennsylvania to a motel in Miami Beach (Actually Hallendale, FL)
and I met 2 teenage brothers from Detroit, and they had brought
along their 4 1/4 inch reflector telescope for observing the night sky, and I got my first look at Saturn thru a scope....and I was hooked;  I had to have a scope too, and that's how it started....first a 6" then 8", then 13" then 16" then 18" then 24" and now a 30 inch.  I'm not going any bigger than that.  I still have the old 8" and old 18 inch as backup scopes.  Plus being an
Air Force Pilot in real life, I always enjoyed the air, space,
and most of the Earth Science subjects.

2.  Ever since about 5th grade (10,11 years old) or thereabouts,
covered above in #1.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA